Skating Fridays

Back on the Ice

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been off the ice for 5 weeks. For 4 out of the 5 weeks, I was in Hawaii and did not have access to an ice rink. Although I tried to do some off-ice conditioning and exercises, it wasn’t the same. When I returned to the mainland, however, I somehow contracted COVID even though we had masked everywhere.

As a result, I self-isolated for 5-6 days and continued to wear my mask around the house so that my husband and daughter did not get sick. I finally emerged from self-isolation and nervously planned a trip to the rink. Sadly, my home was still closed, so I had to schlep the 30 minutes to our sister rink instead.

My feet did NOT want to go into my boots. My arch was painful, and my heel hurt after a few minutes. However, I made it through an hour on the ice and thankfully did not die. My spins were pretty much there, and my jumps were a bit hesitant and shaky.

All in all, I’d call this a successful return back to the ice. Even though I was scared to fall down (there were huge condensation bumps EVERYWHERE), I managed to stay upright and retain most of my skills. I’m excited to keep practicing and get back to the level where I was before my vacation and hope to continue to progress forward.